BHS cross country shows progress at Yucaipa Invitational

Tuesday

Oct 8, 2013 at 1:28 PM

YUCAIPA — For the Burroughs cross country team, small adjustments in recent practices have translated to improved results. Both the boys and girls raced well at the Yucaipa Invitational on Saturday, highlighted by a career race from Burros junior Maryah Marcano.

By Anthony GentileSPORTS EDITORagentile@ridgecrestca.com

YUCAIPA — For the Burroughs cross country team, small adjustments in recent practices have translated to improved results. Both the boys and girls raced well at the Yucaipa Invitational on Saturday, highlighted by a career race from Burros junior Maryah Marcano."We've been making some minor adjustments in our training that have paid off for a lot of the kids," Burros head coach Anthony Barnes said. "They're starting to finally improve and run some of the races that they are capable of."Marcano came in third place overall by running an 18:31 in the Gold Division race, a personal best and school record at the Yucaipa Invitational. The time was the second fastest in Burroughs' history on a three-mile course. "Her performance was just phenomenal. It's her best performance ever, both in terms of time and racing," Barnes said. "She put herself in the caliber of some of the best runners in the state."Marcano finished three seconds behind Granite Hills' Katie Deimling in the Gold Division race. The next closest runner crossed the finish line 18 seconds later."Maryah went out and beat some of the best runners that are out there, and gave Katie as much as anyone has given her, in terms of competitiveness, all season long," Barnes said. "It was very impressive."Marcano's performance on Saturday was by far her best of the season. A combination of scaled-back workouts and a change in strategy led to a stellar race. "She has been kind of holding back a little in some of the meets and it's been counterproductive," Barnes said. "She tends to run a little bit better when she's pushing up front."Marcano led the girls team to a fifth-place finish and a school record time of 106:24. Julia Ernst (20:41, 21st place), Marin Carey (21:02, 27th), Anne Ewbank (21:25, 31st), Brianna Malone (25:08, 64th) and Rana Khalifeh (25:18, 65th) rounded out the top five for Burroughs. "The girls were across the board outstanding," Barnes said. "With the exception of one person, the entire team ran faster on the course than they ever had before."The boys team finished fourth in the Gold Division race, led by Josh Boston running a 16:12 and setting a school record for the course. The Burros turned in a team time of 87:37."The boys overall team performance was definitely improved and better," Barnes said.Burroughs ran to a fourth-place finish despite three of its runners falling during the race. David Aranda ran into a pole on the course, Andrew Estabridis tripped over Aranda, and later on in the race Nathaniel Aralar took a tumble. Aralar (18:11, 44th), Estabridis (18:47, 55th) and Aranda (18:59, 58th) each recovered from their in-race mishaps to finish the race."They all still got up and still ran decent times, but we could have done better," Barnes said.Greg Ostrom (17:32, 22nd), Alex Salinas (17:45, 31st) and Alan Bradford (17:52, 34th) helped Burroughs come in fourth place, four points ahead of San Gorgonio. The Burros' frosh-soph team came in third place in its, with Cameron Fuller (18:37) and Andrew Ostrom (18:45) turning in times fast enough to beat some of the varsity runners.Up next for Burroughs is a cross-country trip to Florida, where 15 runners will participate in the Disney Cross Country Classic at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. The runners leave for Orlando on Friday and race on Saturday morning."It's a really fun race and trip, but we are not to be forgetting that we are going down to hopefully accomplish a few things and come back with a few awards and a ton of memories," Barnes said. "It's going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience."When the Burros return home, the focus will be back on the Desert Sky League. Burroughs hosts the second DSL cluster meet of the season on Wednesday, Oct. 16 on its home course at Cerro Coso.

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